Falmouth pummeled Wellesley goalie Meghan King for 21 third-period shots, one after another after another. But nothing. Not until the very end when King might have momentarily let her guard down after her team's empty-netter seemingly sealed their victory.

Kelly Ferreira's shot from the blue line that hopped over King's shoulder to make it 3-2 Wellesley in the Div. 2 girls hockey semifinal was the last shot the third-seeded Clippers (15-3-4) had in the game — and in their season — to make a third straight state final bid at TD Garden.

For the first time since 2010, a team other than Falmouth or Duxbury (moved up to Div. 1) will be playing at the Garden for the Div. 2 title.

"We have nothing to complain about here," said Falmouth head coach Erin Hunt. "We've got a good group of girls and we'll keep moving forward. It stinks to think about next year right now, but we'll be OK. They worked hard and they have nothing to be upset about."

Second-seeded Wellesley (20-1-2) will be vying for its first state title since 2006. That game, however, was played at Boston University, not the Garden.

The Red Raiders got on the board first in the first period when Carley Boyle fed Cecily Docktor a pass from behind the net and Docktor stuffed it past Falmouth goalie Maddie Scavotto's glove-side at the 2:30 mark.

Clippers forward Maggie MacDonald was leveled at mid-ice a few minutes later and left the game. But she game back with a vengeance with about five minutes remaining in the period and scored the equalizer. Maddi Haberl fed MacDonald a pass in front of the net and MacDonald chipped it in under the crossbar at the 11:58 mark.

Wellesley peppered Scavotto with three straight shots to open the second period and Boyle caught one of the rebounds, sending it in over Scavotto's right leg at the 40-second mark.

After six shots from the Raiders in the first five minutes of the second, the Clippers turned up the heat, blasting King with 10 shots over the final 10 minutes to no avail.

King entered Tuesday's semifinal match with a 1.45 goals against average, allowing just 28 goals in 20 games.

"I think she was the difference, we tried to the very end," said Hunt. "She kept them in the game."

Despite the lack of scoring, Falmouth was able to kill three Raider power plays in the second period to keep it a 2-1 game.

The two teams met in their regular-season finale at the end of February and the Clippers entered the third period of that game trailing the Raiders 2-1. Falmouth eventually came back to tie it that day.

They tried to this time around. The Clippers fired off seven shots on goal in the first 1:30 of the third, but the stalwart Wellesley goalie stood her ground.

"She stays calm all the time, she's like a Zen master," said Wellesley head coach George Campbell of his junior goalie King. "She has everything under control, never panics and knows exactly what's going to happen."

"In our league this year we had eight or nine games in league play decided by a goal or less and we had six games where we had to come from behind," said Campbell of the late-game pressure from Falmouth. "So there is pressure all the time and our kids deal with it pretty well."

It wasn't until the 3:50 mark of the third that the Clippers got their first power play, but King smothered those two shots, too. Falmouth got its third power-play opportunity at the 1:50 mark and pulled Scavotto from net at 1:35.

Wellesley managed an empty-net shot that missed and Falmouth kept the puck in front of King for another minute before the Raiders Keely Corscadden got a stick on the puck at center ice and knocked in a better-aimed empty-netter with 41 seconds left.

Wellesley erupted in excitement and Falmouth's Ferreira grabbed the opportunity slapping a shot from the blue line that hopped over King's shoulder to make it 3-2 with 25 seconds left.

But Falmouth couldn't get one more as the Wellesley girls piled on King in her net.

If the game had been counted on shots alone, Falmouth won by a large margin 38-18, and 21-2 in the final frame alone.

"I'm really proud of the way our girls played," said Hunt. "They battled until the end and you can't ask for more as a coach."